Question the Cartoonist

#505 – A Strange Sense of Deja Vu…

Such is the problem with the beginner’s sets. Everyone wants to go against the dragons before they are ready!

Welcome to another addition of Dungeons and Dragons Theater where we explore the world of Pathfinders!

I should explain at the forefront that I am in no way complaining about the clear homage to the pink box presented by Pathfinders on the beginner box. For those of you that don’t remember the pink box cover (if such a person exists… frankly I find it doubtful…):

How to Serve Humans

No… it’s a clear homage and it’s very well done. What bugs me about it is that I didn’t see it… not at all. I must have had that box in my hands a hundred times at the store, and I never noticed. It wasn’t until I got it home and was playing through the educational solo mini-adventure that it struck me how similar it was to playing from the DnD basic set…

…and then I looked at the box again, and suddenly I had to wonder where I’d been keeping my head at because it was so obvious…

…everything is backwards though… right is left, male is female… I thought maybe it was an image from the evil parallel universe, but the wizard is the only one with facial hair… what can you do?!?

As per Pathfinders itself, it is based on the open-gaming system which is based on d20 which is based on DnD and ADnD of old, so there’s no surprise it plays so familiar. It’s not as simple as the old basic set, of course, due to the modifiers and all, but it’s a nice easy introductory system, and looks to be great fun…

…if I could find anyone to play with, of course…

I had forgotten what it is like to play with a new character… 4-12 hp… one well-placed hit enough to kill you… which is entirely appropriate as it would only take a sword hit or two to do in most of us, but it definitely keeps you on your toes…

I have the latest red box sitting here as well, so I’m thinking this weekend I will take the time to pour through the two rule sets and compare and contrast…